, October 1977 Founded in October 1977 during the Jewish holiday of
Sukkot, it was supposed to be located on government lands adjacent to Jericho. Due to the objection of then
Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, they were moved to
Mishor Adumim. Agriculture Minister
Ariel Sharon suggested a few days later that they relocate to a hilltop overlooking Jericho, its current location. According to
ARIJ, in 1978 Israel confiscated 968
dunams of land from the
Palestinian site of
Nabi Musa in order to construct Mitzpe Yeriho. The same year, the settlement was the site of
a Palestinian terrorist attack in which an intercity bus was bombed, killing four and wounding 37 people. The original residents were a mixed group of both
religiously observant and
non-observant Jews. They later split up into two groups, and the non-observant members established a new settlement,
Vered Yericho, located in the Jordan Valley below Mitzpe Yeriho and closer to
Jericho. Still, Mitzpe Yeriho is a community of various traditions and observance levels. While the main synagogue follows Ashkenazi traditions, there are also two Sephardi synagogues, a Chabad synagogue, a Yemenite synagogue, a
Carlebach minyan and several other small functioning minyanim. In 1982, the community appointed then 27-year-old
Yehuda Kroizer as community rabbi. Rabbi Kroizer gives regular classes, both in the town as well as in the Yeshivat HaRaayon HaYehudi, the former yeshiva of Rabbi
Meir Kahane. The yeshiva Netivot Yoseph, a leading
Religious Zionist yeshiva headed by Rabbi Shabtai Sabbato, was founded in 1990, and moved the following year to Mitzpe Yeriho. The yeshiva is well known for its emphasis on breadth of Talmudic studies (
bekiyut). It frequently honors students who have completed studying the entire
Talmud; in 2011, there was a special celebration of 100 graduates who completed Shas. In 2018, the yeshiva opened a
Beth Din, a rabbinical court for questions of financial laws. Graduates of the yeshiva who have passed the rabbinate's
dayanut exams will serve as judges. In May 1997, the
Israeli Defense Forces dismantled two illegally placed mobile homes in Mitzpe Yeriho. In 2018, the council of Mitzpe Yericho elected its first woman mayor, Aliza Pilichowski, an immigrant from the
United States. ==Demographics==